


What Did I Miss?

by justalittlefunky



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Depressed Uzumaki Naruto, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay, Light Angst, M/M, uh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:21:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26271781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justalittlefunky/pseuds/justalittlefunky
Summary: When the loud, obnoxious, obsessed-with-becoming-Hokage Uzumaki Naruto stops coming to school, the edgy-teenager-wannabe known as Uchiha Sasuke says “fuck it” and goes to find out what’s up.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 1
Kudos: 167





	What Did I Miss?

**Author's Note:**

> I didn’t technically want to write this. The idea and the writing is all mine, of course, but this was a request from a friend that I physically groaned at. This is one of my first attempts at angst, so I’m not very good, but I hope you like it anyway.

“That’s not what you said!” Naruto yelled, waving his arms around animatedly to further accentuate his point.

“Yes it is, you moron! We’re you listening to anything I was talking about?!” Sasuke threw back.

Naruto aimed a punch for Sasuke’s face, but it was caught. He tried with the other hand, but the same thing happened. He twisted his fists around in the raven boy’s hands, pushing against them, trying to gain some sort of leverage.

“What’s it about this time?” Iruka asked from the front of the room, directed at Sakura, who was sitting not too far from the squabbling pair.

The pink-haired girl sighed before explaining that it was just one of their usual fights about something utterly pointless to argue about. Iruka accepted the answer, going back to teaching, raising his voice just a bit so the people in the back of the room could hear him over the obnoxious yelling of the two boys. All was fine and normal until Naruto’s sleeves lifted up to his elbows, showcasing his arms. Sasuke looked at them for a moment, squinting his eyes. Lines. Red lines. There were red lines on Naruto’s arms.

“What’s with your arms?” Sasuke suddenly asked, the randomness of it managing to get most of the classes attention.

Sasuke expected to get a left hook to the face and a “It’s none of your business,” but as soon as he finished his sentence, color seemed to drain from Naruto’s face. He roughly pulled his arms away from Sasuke’s grip, wincing a little. He quickly pulled his sleeves back down.

“Nothing...” Naruto said quietly, his eyes drifting away from Sasuke and down to the ground.

Everyone in the class witnessed Naruto’s mood plummet down to a speck of what it was a few moments ago, some people getting slightly surprised by such a quick mood change, including Sasuke himself.

Naruto quietly said something only Sasuke could hear before walking out of the classroom, leaving everyone in it confused and a little worried for the blonde.

“He said he was going to the bathroom,” Sasuke remarked in the silent classroom, cracking his knuckles and sitting down in his seat.

“Um...okay then,” Iruka responded nervously, taking one last glance at the door before continuing the lesson.

He didn’t come back. This was the first strange thing that happened that week. The next day, Naruto didn’t come to school. The day after that, the same thing happened, so Sakura had gone to check on Naruto at his apartment by Iruka’s request, but when she knocked on the door, she didn’t get an answer. She could hear quiet shuffling inside, signaling that the boy was home, but the door never opened to reveal the signature ocean blue eyes and shocking blonde hair that everybody knew. All of that worried the people of Naruto’s class, but what really threw them for a loop was when Naruto was seen standing outside the school in a T-shirt and shorts, but he never walked in. He left before anyone could talk to him.

At this point, even Sasuke was a little worried. Who wouldn’t be? Naruto, the rambunctious boy who dreamed of being Hokage, was holed up in his room and avoiding everyone, even going as far as not coming to school.

Sasuke decided that he’d had enough of this. He had this guilt building up inside of him and he couldn’t figure out why. Was it because he pointed out the lines on his arm? He still couldn’t figure out what those were, but for some reason, he felt like they were a bad sign. So, once school was over (Naruto having been absent for nearly the entire week at this point), Sasuke walked over to Naruto’s apartment. He knocked on the door, waiting for an answer, but never got one. Just as Sakura had said, there was shuffling inside. He was definitely home, but he wouldn’t open the door. Sasuke sighed, knocking on the door again.

“Naruto, I know you’re in there,” he said, knocking on the door for the third time.

No answer.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Sasuke said, starting to get irritated. “If you don’t open this door by the count of five, I will kick it down.”

“Five.”

No answer.

“Four.”

He was gonna kick the door down. Naruto knew that, but still no answer.

“Three.”

Hurried shuffling.

“Two.”

Footsteps coming closer.

“One-“

Just as he finished the word, the door slowly cracked open and there stood Naruto, standing right in front of him. He was wearing shorts and a long-sleeve shirt, but the shirt looked like it was just thrown on a few seconds ago, barely straightened out. He was smiling, but it looked forced, painful even. The bags under his eyes furthered this observation. His usually bright blue eyes were dull and puffy, as if he’d been crying. His hair was messy and in his eyes without his goggles keeping it at bay. He looked tired, but he acted wide awake. If Sasuke was being honest, it kind of hurt him to see Naruto looking so bad.

“Sasuke!” The blonde exclaimed happily, but there was a hint of something in his voice that Sasuke couldn’t quite catch. “What brings you here?”

“You haven’t been at school since Monday,” Sasuke stated flatly, trying to cover his worry with his usual blank attitude.

“Awwww, were you worried about me?” Naruto teased in a way that would make you believe he was perfectly fine if he hadn’t been absent for nearly the entire week.

“Your grades are going to drop.”

“It’ll be fine! I can make up a few assignments.”

“Why haven’t you been at school, anyway?”

There. That was when the mask slipped for a second. His smile faltered and his pupils dilated. There was a moment when everything was still before he started scratching the back of his neck, looking down at the ground.

“Oh. I’ve been feeling a little sick lately a-and I didn’t want anyone to catch something, so I stayed home.”

He stuttered.

“Liar.”

Naruto looked up at Sasuke, surprise apparent in his dim eyes.

“What do you-“

“You were spotted standing outside of the school yesterday.”

Silence. Stunned silence.

“So, tell me the real reason you haven’t been at school.”

It seemed Naruto wasn’t planning on anyone being able to get this far because he was out of excuses and was struggling to find words. Time for plan B. Avoid the problem.

“L-look, I need some rest, s-so I’m gonna take a nap or something,” the shorter male said, beginning to closing the door.

Sasuke pushed the door open harshly, sending Naruto stumbling backwards into the apartment. The raven-haired boy walked inside, shutting the door behind him, much to the blonde’s protest. The room was dark and messy, clothes and ramen cups littering the hardwood floor, but Sasuke kept walking towards Naruto, who kept walking backwards, until the shorter boy was up against the wall. Before Naruto had the chance to run away, two hands slammed into the wall on either side of him. He was pinned. Nowhere to run. He was completely out of ideas now.

“Is it because I pointed out your arms?”

Naruto really didn’t know what to do at this point. Lying wasn’t effective. He couldn’t run. He was trapped. All he could do now was comply. He didn’t think he would be able to fool someone like Sasuke for long anyway.

“I...that’s part of it...” he admitted.

‘Finally, I’m gonna get some answers,’ Sasuke thought, mentally patting himself on the back for managing to push someone as stubborn as Naruto to the edge. A difficult feat indeed.

“Then why?” Sasuke asked, confusion setting in.

Naruto was silent, thinking about how to say what he was gonna say in a more indirect way, but giving up when he couldn’t find the right words.

“I didn’t want people to ask me questions.”

“What do you mean?”

“You randomly blurted out that comment about my arms. We may not have the brightest people in our class, but someone was bound to figure it out at some point.”

Sasuke was thoroughly baffled in this moment. What was he talking about?

“Bound to figure what out?” Sasuke was getting a little impatient. Sure, he was getting answers, but they were all so vague. Can’t this dude just give a straight answer?

“Don’t you get it?” Naruto explained, slowly rolling up his sleeves and holding his arms up for Sasuke to see, a sad expression creeping onto his face.

Sasuke took a good look at the arms in front of him and the red lines on them. He hadn’t noticed before since it had been just a quick glance, but the red lines were starting to look a lot like...cuts? Those were cuts on Naruto’s arms. That’s when everything clicked.

“Are you...?” Sasuke trailed off, looking at Naruto, the pieces having been put together in his mind.

“Depressed?” Naruto said bluntly, chuckling humorlessly and putting his arms down. “It’s hard not to be with a life like mine.”

Sasuke was dumbfounded. Naruto? Depressed? This didn’t seem real.

“For how long?” Sasuke’s voice was quiet, gentle even.

“Can’t remember, but that probably goes to show how long it’s been,” the blonde replied, his naturally loud and rough voice not fitting with how he was practically whispering right now.

“I’ve been trying to act like I’m fine for so long, but at this point, I don’t know how much longer I can do it.”

It was only a moment before Sasuke finally took his hands away from the wall before proceeding to grab both of Naruto’s hands, pulling him forward and wrapping him in a soft embrace. Not too loose, not too tight.

“S...Sasuke...” Naruto whispered, carefully putting his hands around the Uchiha’s waist and resting his head on his shoulder.

“I don’t know how trusting you are of me, but if you want to talk, we can talk,” the taller boy said, holding the shorter boy a little tighter. “I’m here to listen.”

“I don’t wanna trouble you with my problems.”

“As long as we’re friends, your problems are my problems too.”

Although Sasuke couldn’t see Naruto’s face, he could feel the surprise in the air. It wasn’t like him to say something like that, he knew this, but after what he had just found out, he felt the boy truly needed something surprising to lift him up, even if it was only the tiniest amount.

“It’s funny...” Naruto said, choking up a bit. “You’re here, hugging me, saying that you’re my friend, but I still feel lonely...”

Isolation. He’s been isolated for his whole life with no one to accept him. No one to be friends with. And it’s all because of that fox.

‘Curse that stupid fox,’ Sasuke thought, frowning. ‘He doesn’t deserve this.’

“It’s h-hard, Sasuke. It’s s-so h-hard. I don’t w-want to be alone a-anymore...!” the blonde sobbed, clutching onto Sasuke like he was gonna disappear, which he probably thought was actually gonna happen.

Sasuke let him cry. It was the least he could do. He wasn’t all that good at comforting people, but he was at least somewhat good at being there when they needed a shoulder to cry on, despite the fact that he hated when people cried on his shoulder. Naruto, though, was an exception he was willing to make. So he hugged Naruto tightly, taking comfort in the warmth of his body as he cried. Being here like this made Sasuke realize how nice it felt to hug someone, but that feeling was on a whole other level to Naruto. He couldn’t remember the last time he hugged someone, but he didn’t remember it feeling so nice. So safe. So secure. It felt like his entire body was warm as he grasped onto the black-haired boy. 

“Th-this probably isn’t the b-b-best t-time to s-say this...” Naruto started as hot tears ran down his face, voice quivering, “...but I-I think I l-love you...”

Of all things Sasuke thought Naruto would say, that was something he hadn’t even taken into consideration.

“I ch-chose to be m-m-mean to you b-because I didn’t know h-how to feel...

“B-besides, y-you would just p-p-push me away like e-everybody else, so I n-never thought there was a p-point...”

A wave of realization hit Sasuke. He had always felt something when he looked at Naruto, but he didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t hate, it wasn’t dread, and it certainly wasn’t disgust, but those were the only things Sasuke thought he felt for the blonde...until now. All the pieces seemed to fall into place in his mind. This entire time, he...loved Naruto Uzumaki without even knowing it. This was so sudden and random, but it made everything finally make sense. The fluttery feelings he got when Naruto smiled, the pangs of jealousy he felt when Naruto looked at anyone else with that smile, the hatred he would feel for anyone that disrespected Naruto in any way. It all fit together perfectly. He had always tried to pass those feelings off as something else, but he was trying to hide from the truth. He loved Naruto Uzumaki, he just didn’t want to accept it.

“How long?” Sasuke asked quietly, unintentionally speaking directly into Naruto’s ear, making him noticeably shiver.

“U-um...probably s-since the beginning of s-school, b-but I knew I w-w-wasn’t worth your t-t-time...” the blonde responded weakly, crying a little harder, his knuckles turning white with how hard he was holding on to Sasuke’s shirt.

Sasuke gently pushed the shorter boy away from him, just enough so that his face was visible. The boy seemed so unbearably sad as he looked up at Sasuke, tears still flowing down his cheeks. It broke Sasuke’s heart.

Before he knew what he was doing, Sasuke had his lips connected with Naruto’s, pushing the boy against the wall. There was barely even a pause before the blonde started kissing him back. Those abused arms wrapped around Sasuke’s body hugged him so hard it probably hurt, but he didn’t care. He was getting affection. He was sure if anyone tried to pull him away from this moment, he would punch them in the face. He’d been waiting for too long to let this go.

‘Maybe I can be happy with him,’ Naruto considered when they pulled away from each other, but when he saw the amount of love in Sasuke’s eyes, he already knew his answer.

‘Yeah. I can be happy with him.’


End file.
